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Change the months from October to November, and you have the season of your Maple Leafs so far.

What soared in the first month has sagged in the second, and while you can’t ignore the very visible issues that have started to dog Randy Carlyle’s squad, you can’t forget what was working earlier, either.

A little bit of both. Indeed, the Leafs actually played as good a game as they’d played all week against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night, and still went down to defeat, this time by a 4-2 score, to make it four losses in six nights.

No, like snowflakes and Rob Ford apologies, each Leaf loss has something unique about it, and to be fair, Saturday night’s loss to the Habs had a lot of Carey Price written all over it. Price, behind a massively improved defensive shield that suddenly blocks shots like they get a $1,000 bonus for each one, is making a very strong argument that he should be Canada’s goalie in Sochi.

What’s fascinating in Montreal, of course, is that Peter Budaj’s numbers are every bit as good as Price’s, albeit in fewer games.

So is this about a team jockeying with Boston and L.A. for the title of the NHL’s best defensive outfit, or about a goalie proving himself Olympic-worthy?

“We executed very well tonight. We played an excellent 60 minutes,” Price said after his 34-save effort, the seventh straight game he’s given up two goals or less. “The guys in front of me and (Budaj) are playing very well. Their effort has been second to none.

“I feel like I’m playing well. But a lot has to do with the guys in front of me.”

The Leafs did get two on him in a 22-second span late in the second, and a lot was made after the game that this brief outburst of offensive prowess was fuelled by the way in which Max Pacioretty celebrated Montreal’s fourth goal, a shorthanded effort, by pantomiming putting a sword back in a sheath.

Maybe, but that’s a rotten reason to put forth the required effort, and besides, there was no way the Habs were going to cough up the entire four-goal margin, not with the confident way in which they are defending and trusting one another to be in the right spot.

“I thought we did a good job as five guys, six guys with Carey, making sure we were making smart decisions,” said defenceman P.K. Subban.

“(Price) has played well. We need him playing his best hockey and he’s been doing it all year for us.”

Without question, the Olympic goalie debate is heating up, with Team Canada’s selection due in early January. Incumbent Roberto Luongo, despite the stumbles of the Canucks, is still there. Minnesota’s Josh Harding is putting up dazzling numbers and Corey Crawford has 17 wins for the reigning champions from Chicago. And there are others.

Still too close to call. But Price is right there.

It was the first meeting, meanwhile, between the two ancient rivals since opening night, the beginning of Toronto’s torrid start, and produced an electric atmosphere at the Bell Centre. The Habs fed off it quickly, drawing a dumb penalty from Carl Gunnarsson as part of what would be a lousy night at the office for the defenceman, and getting a quick goal from Pacioretty on his own rebound after Leaf goalie Jonathan Bernier had stopped him on a breakaway.

That turned into a 2-0 lead when Leaf winger Phil Kessel — back to being Silent Phil and ducking the media, by the way — whiffed on a lame checking attempt on Subban, allowing the flashy rearguard to bury his fourth of the season past Bernier on the blocker side.

Tomas Plekanec made it 3-0 on an embarrassing defensive shift by Kessel and his linemates, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk, and Pacioretty pretty much put a cork in it by stealing the puck from Morgan Rielly, turning Gunnarsson into a pretzel and finally fooling Bernier with a backhand between the legs.

“At times we didn’t play as well as we can,” said van Riemsdyk, burned by a laughable goalie interference call in the first that cost the Leafs a goal. “Those times cost us the game.”

These are hard days for Carlyle’s Leafs, and they may not be over. The club has played in spurts all year, and the goaltending, once outstanding, has plummeted back to earth.

“I’ve just got to find a way to get my game back,” said Bernier, who has allowed four goals or more in each of his last three starts.

It just looks like a team filled with players who don’t trust each other right now, just can’t rely on each other to be where they should be when they should be.

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